Chicken Salad Sandwiches

I love chicken salad sandwiches and I usually get the pre-done kind at Publix, but I wanted to try it for myself. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman. You'll see a trend as I've been getting my recipes from her all week.  

Ingredients

• 1 whole Cut Up Fryer Chicken (a whole chicken, I used split chicken)
• 2 stalks (to 3 Stalks) Celery, Chopped
• 3 whole Green Onions, Chopped
• 2 cups (to 3 Cups) Grapes, Halved
• A Small Handful Of Fresh Dill, Minced (I used dried)
• ½ cups Mayonnaise
• ½ cups Plain Yogurt Or Sour Cream (I used yogurt, b/c you all know how much I love sour cream...not)
• 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Brown Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon (to 2 Tablespoons) Lemon Juice
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• Fresh Ground Black Pepper To Taste

Directions-
Rinse chicken thoroughly and place in a large pot of water. Turn on the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done (about 45 minutes to an hour). When you are ready, remove the chicken from the pot and place on a plate. With your fingers or a fork, pull all of the meat off the bones, chop into bite-sized chunks and set aside. I baked mine in the oven and will try boiling next time as this took a while. I put olive oil, salt and pepper on mine.

Chop all of your fruits and veggies and place them in a bowl with the chicken.

In another bowl mix mayonnaise, yogurt (or sour cream), lemon juice, brown sugar and salt and pepper to taste. Add fresh herbs (dill, oregano,…whatever you have or leave it out). When the dressing tastes just right (you must taste test for appropriate saltiness especially), pour it over the chicken/veggie/fruit mixture and stir gently until everything is thoroughly mixed.

Allow the salad to chill for several hours (or even overnight). Serve on a bed of lettuce or in a sandwich or heck, eat it straight out of the bowl with a serving spoon. There is a lot of chopping with this recipe so find yourself a sous-chef or just enjoy your time cutting. It's therapeutic for me. I put mine on a croissant, which I believe is the best place for chicken salad! Mmm Mmm Good! A little tidbit for ya-I did add a little too many onions though. The recipe says 3 green onions, well on one stalk of green onions is 3 so I wasn't sure if it meant 3 stalks of the 3 or just 1 stalk with 3 and I think its the smaller portion one :) oops. I still loved it.

Top Three Thursday-Movie

 This week's top three thursday is favorite movies! I had a hard time with this because I usually watch movies and then move on. I have a hard time re-watching things or even remembering if I've seen something or not. David on the other hand can pick up on a movie in the middle of it and keep going having seen it or not. I based my choices on how many times I have watched them and these were the first ones that came to mind.

1.) Mama Mia- I learned that I really like musicals. This one I actually saw with Amber and her Grandma at the Fox theatre last year and it was AWESOME! I couldn't stop talking about it so I went and got the movie when it came out and I still really love it. I can watch it over and over!

2.) Old School- This movie is hilarious! I don't normally quote movies, but these were memorable ones. "We're going streaking through the quad", "Well, um, actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we're going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, and Beyond, I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time." "Frank the Tank, Frank the Tank" Ok, I'll stop.

3.) The Grinch Who Stole Christmas- It's a classic, but I like the new Jim Carey version and love to watch this at Christmas time. Sometimes I break it out once during the year as well to gear up for the season.

What are your top three movies?

Chicken Pasta Primavera & Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This past week we had David's parents over for dinner. Lately they have been my guinea pigs, but everything has been great so far so I don't think they mind. This recipe comes from 5dollardinners.com. It made a ton!
Ingredients:

1 box farfalle pasta 

2-3 chicken breasts, diced 

1 tsp olive oil 

Salt and pepper

3 medium zucchini squash, cut into circles (You don't have to use this much, I had bought a lot)

2 medium yellow squash, cut into circles 

1/4 small yellow onion, chopped

1 head broccoli, cut into florets 

2 carrot sticks, peeled and chopped (I left these out)

5 small tomatoes, (I used 1 big one)

2 garlic cloves, crushed 

For White Sauce:

3 Tbsp butter or margarine 

3 Tbsp flour 

2 cups milk 

3-4 Tbsp parmesan cheese 

Salt and pepper

Directions-

1. In medium saucepan, cook pasta according to package instructions.  Drain and add to large serving bowl.

2. In large skillet, sauté diced chicken in olive oil and salt and pepper for 6-8 minutes, stirring often. Once chicken has cooked through, transfer to plate.

3. Chop all veggies. Add chopped veggies to same skillet that cooked the chicken in.

4. Add all the veggies (except the tomatoes) to the same skillet that you sautéed the chicken and steam/sauté for 3-4 minutes with 1/4 cup of water(I had to do mine for longer because I had so many).  Add the tomatoes during the last minute.  Transfer to plate.

5. Make your sauce: Melt your butter, Add flour and whisk together, Add milk and whisk to get all clumps out, Add parmesan and stir. Let it start to boil and reduce to a simmer for a few minutes.

6. In large serving bowl, toss pasta, cooked chicken, sautéed veggies with parmesan sauce.  Season with salt and pepper to taste…and extra parmesan cheese if you like.

David also has made us Dessert. Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. They just had a hint of peanut butter so I'd consider it more chocolate chip, but so gooood. Here is the recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Ingredients:
1 cup Butter Or Margarine (2 Sticks), Softened
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Brown Sugar, Packed
1 cup White Sugar
2 whole Eggs
2-½ cups Flour
1-½ teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
½ teaspoons Salt
1 package Chocolate Chips (12 Oz)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Combine butter/margarine, peanut butter, sugars and eggs until well blended.
3. Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add this mixture to the butter mixture until well blended. Add the chocolate chips.
4. Roll dough into tablespoon size balls, place on cookie sheet and slightly flatten with three fingers. Bake for 8-10 minutes until cracked and slightly golden. Watch to make sure they don't burn.

It made so many we were able to freeze some dough and give some away! Mmmm!

Steak Kabobs & Weekend Update

Last weekend when it was warm for a few days we decided to fire up the grill. I am behind on posting some recipes so I might post more than 1 per day. These were just our own mix. We used steak cut up, red peppers, and onions. We marinated the steak in soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and McCormick's grill seasoning (I think that's the name, but its the best stuff for steak and burgers). 

All grilled up and tasty. I can't wait for it to be warm and spring soon!

This weekend looked really warm out, but it was in the 50's so you really still had to bundle. I picked some weeds and enjoyed it a little bit, but Molly was the one out there a lot! Here is a photo of her enjoying the dead grass mix.

No crate update for Miss Molly: Starting Jan 1, we wanted to try and leave molly to roam the house and I am happy to say that we have not put molly's crate back up in the family room. We did have issues the first 3 weeks, but after that she has been an angel (knock on wood). She also has a dog door that she can go in and out from and right in front of it started to collect a lot of grass and dirt from outside. We were having to mop the floor more often. So this weekend we got her a nice entrance mat for her door and hopefully this will help. Sorry the lighting was bad so you can't see it that well.

 I also made homemade chicken salad and put it on croissants. I'll post the recipe later this week. Happy Monday everyone!

Chicken Giardino from Olive Garden

This recipe comes straight from OliveGarden.com. Jen over at www.codaandpaco.com told me that they had recipes right on their site. I was so excited to see this recipe on there. This was my favorite, and they stopped carrying it at the restaurant a while back. The recipe was not hard to make and it turned out JUST like it did at OG.

Chicken Giardino

Prep Time:	1 hour
Cook Time:	25 minutes
Serving Size:	4 8 12

Ingredients
Sauce:
1 Tbsp butter
¼ tsp dry thyme
½ tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp garlic pepper
1 Tbsp cornstarch
¼ cup chicken broth
¼ cup water
¼ cup white wine
1 Tbsp milk
1 tsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Chicken:
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced width-wise into ½” strips
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 small rosemary sprigs
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Juice of ½ lemon

Vegetables (I didn't use all of them):
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ bunch fresh asparagus (remove bottom inch of stem; cut remainder into 1” pieces)
1 zucchini, julienne cut
1 yellow summer squash, julienne cut
2 roma tomatoes, cut into ½” pieces
½ red bell pepper, julienne cut
1 cup broccoli florets, blanched
½ cup frozen peas (I left these out)
1 cup spinach, cut into ½” pieces
½ cup carrots, julienne cut
1 lb farfalle pasta (bow ties), cooked according to package directions

Procedures
Sauce Preparation:

1. MELT butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in thyme, garlic pepper and rosemary. Whisk to thoroughly blend and cook for 1 minute.
2. COMBINE chicken broth, water, wine, milk, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Add cornstarch and whisk until cornstarch has dissolved and there are no lumps.
3. ADD liquid mixture to sauce pan. Whisk all ingredients together and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat.

Chicken & Vegetables Preparation:

1. COMBINE all chicken ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend well.
2. MARINATE for 30 minutes.
3. HEAT a saute pan over medium high heat. Add ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil.
4. SAUTE chicken strips until internal temperature reaches 165°F.
5. ADD all vegetables and sauté until cooked through.
6. ADD cooked, drained pasta and sauce to sauté pan. Stir until pasta is thoroughly coated with sauce.
7. TRANSFER to a serving platter and garnish with chopped parsley.

Finished product!

Top Three Thursday- Food

Our Top Three Thursday is about favorite foods! This one was super easy for me. I like real food mostly and would pass for dessert to eat an extra salad. I know, I'm weird. Anyway here is my top 3!

1.PIZZA- I could eat this every day. Even though most people know I don't like cheese, melted mozzarella is definitely the exception. Can't get enough of it.

 

2. PASTA! Call me Italian or something, but I love pasta. I could have it for every meal and it runs in the family.

  

3. SALAD! I don't put too many things in my salad, usually black olives, cucumber, bacon bits, Italian dressing and lettuce. The olive garden makes a great salad and I could get a refill on the bowl about 3 times.

 

This all made me really hungry and I'm thinking a trip to an Italian restaurant is in order soon! What are your top three foods?

So cute!

Last week we got to babysit Audrina, who is my good friend Amber's daughter. It was Amber's birthday and she wanted to redeem the babysitting coupon Michelle and I got her for Christmas. She even brought the coupon which she doesn't ever need and I hope we get to watch her again soon! Audrina was so cute and was bouncing on the couch playing with Molly when I got this picture.